Filing cabinet



Dec. 14, 1954 A. w. BUCK FILING CABINET Filed Jan. 19, 1950 UnitedStates Patent Ograph Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of MissouriApplication January 19, 1950', Serial' No. 139,469

1 Claim. (Cl. 312i-320)` This invention relates to filing cabinets andis directed particularly to improvements in cabinets designed to haveparticular value in the tiling of X-ray films, though not restricted tosuch use.

In the present method of tiling X-ray lms, sliding drawer cabinets areused in which the length of the drawer extends out from the wall and thefilms in their envelopes are put in through the top of the drawer andstand up in a solid mass from front to back. Due to the weight of suchilrns the drawer when pulled out carries a great weight forwardly of thecabinet structure with the result that the entire cabinet is likely totip forward, particularly when the top 4unit drawer is in use.

In addition to the foregoing, the lilm envelopes will not remain uprightunless a follower is used and this then packs the envelopes tightlytogether making selection of a particular one difficult. Also a tileclerk, unless she is of considerable height, has difficulty in selectinga desired envelope from the back of the drawer.

A particular obect of the present invention is to provide a slidingdrawer cabinet in which the drawer is designed to have the contentsacessible from the side and which is movable into and out of the cabinetsideways so that the length of the structure may be disposed paralel toa wall, thus providing a cabinet which takes up less room spaceoutwardly from a wall and in which the drawer needs to be extended fromits housing not less than three inches or more than nine inches asagainst an extension of about twenty-six inches for a cabinet of thecustomary type.

Another object is to provide a tiling cabinet accessible from the sideand having a roller supported, side opening drawer, with means formoving the drawer in and out which mechanically locks the drawer orcarrier in place when extended to its approximate limit.

A further object is to provide a lm ling cabinet cornprising a housingor shell, accessible from the side and enclosing a iilm carriersupported by rollers travelling on tracks, wherein the carrier has itsfront-to-back center of gravity, when extended, located back of itsforward support.

Another object is to provide a filing cabinet of the character setforth, wherein the film carrier is divided from front-to-back bypartitions which are narrower at the top than at the bottom, with thefront edges at a receding angle, which. when the height of thepartitions is kept lower than the film envelopes, promotes easy accessto the printed indicia on the corners of the envelopes apart.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent asthe description of the same proceeds and the invention will be bestunderstood from a consideration of the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part of thespecification, with the understanding, however, that the invention isnot to be limited to the exact details of construction shown anddescribed since obvious modiiications will occur to a person skilled inthe art.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a front elevation of a cabinet constructed in accordancewith the present invention, showing the doors thereof open.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken substantially on the line 2-2 ofFigure 1, on an enlarged scale.

Figure 3 is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, takensubstantially on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary detail showing a roller mounting.

lce

Referring'v more particularly to the drawing, the nu-L meral 10generally designates the cabinet casing or shell which comprises the topandbottom wallsl 11 and 12 respectively,A the end walls 13,- back wall14, and front 15 in whichy is the door opening 16.

The opening 16 is closed by the two side hinged doors As shown thefrontof the casing is of a length greater than the depth from fronttoback and ateach side there is secured uponl the bottom, a track-18iwhich` extends from the front to the back and lies relatively closeto a side wall 13. The tracks 18 are preferably formed of T irons,inverted so that the free edge of the web is directed' upwardly;

Positioned within thencasing'lis the .iilm carrier which is generallydesignated- 19. This carrier comprises a bottorn 20, side walls 21 andback wall 22. Across the front of the bottom is a low upstanding wall orllange 23.

As shown the carrier is of a height materially less than the insideheight of the casing and of a width less than the front opening 16. Thusthe carrier can be easily moved into and out of the casing as necessary.

Secured to the outer sides of the side walls 21 of thecarrier 19 are twogrooved wheels or rollers 24. These are here shown as rotatably mountedto turn on pivots 25 carried by mounting bracket plates 26 which aresecured in a suitable manner to a wall 21, and each roller receives thetrack flange in the groove thereof as shown in Figure 4. Thus thecarrier is supported in spaced relatiocrli 3with the casing bottom 12,as shown in Figures l an As shown in Figure 2 one roller 24 at each sideof tnt,l carrier is located close to the back 22 while the other rolleris set back a substantial distance from the front of the carrier, sothat when the carrier is extended from the casing to its extremeposition the center of gravity from front to back is located back of itsforward support and the carrier when loaded will not cause the structureto tip forward.

In order to limit the forward movement of the carrier and also lock itin its position there is provided an operating and locking linkagecomprising a long thrust link 27 and a short crank or lever bar 28,located in the space between the carrier bottom 20 and the casing bottom12.

The link 27 is pivotally secured at one end at the point 29, to thecenter of the back wall 14 of the casing, to swing horizontally whilethe lever bar 28 is pivoted at 30, at a point inwardly from one end to aspacer block 31 secured to the underside of the carrier bottom at thefront center part thereof, also to swing horizontally.

The link and bar have two ends in crossed relation, as shown in Figure 2and are joined by a vertical pivot 32 and when the carrier is in its inor closed position, the link 27 is in a forwardly and laterally extendedposition while the lever bar 28 extends laterally and rearwardly, withits forward end projecting beyond the llange 23. This forward projectingend has an upturned lip 33 which provides a finger hold to facilitateswinging the crank or lever bar.

[t will be seen that when the bar 28 is swung by pulling out on the lip33 a forward thrust will be imparted to the carrier to move it out ofthe casing, thus bringing the link and bar into parallel relation, asindicated in dotted outline in Figure 2.

In order to stop the link and lever in the parallel relation, onethereof has an edge notch cut therein as at 34 and the other carries astop pin 35 which engages in the notch.

The carrier is divided from front to back by a number of verticalpartitions 36, which are the same height as the ends 21 and these endsand the partitions have their front edges cut at a receding angle as at37 so that lm envelopes when stood up in the spaces between thepartitions will have their top front corners exposed, making it easy tosee the printed indicia which such envelopes carry.

The front of the flange 23 may have index card holding plates 38,secured thereto in front of each of the envelope holding spaces.

From the foregoing it will be seen that there is provided a filingcabinet of unique design having many desirable advantages over the typeof cabinet at present in use, as hereinbefore' pointed out;

l claim:

A filing cabinet comprising a casing having a greater length than depthwith one long side open to provide a front door opening, a carrierdisposed within said casing, means for supporting said carrier forinward and outward movement relative to said casing, said carrier whenin outermost position having its front-to-back center of gravity locatedinwardly of the front of said casing and operating means for saidcarrier comprising a link and a bar having overlapping ends pivotallyconnected together and disposed beneath said carrier, the opposite endof said link being pivotally connected to the back wall of said casing,said bar being pivotally connected inwardly of the opposite end thereofto the bottom of the carrier adjacent the forward end thereof, a fingergrip on the opposite end of said bar disposed outwardly of said carrierin all positions and inwardly of said door opening References Cited inthe le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 567,693Smith Sept. 15, 1896 1,144,882 Whitaker June 29, 1915 1,547,627 ThomasJuly 2S, 1925 1,696,327 Rosentreter Dec. 25, 1928 1,821,247 Thomas Sept.1, 1931 1,929,095 Hutchings Oct. 3, 1933 1,961,332 Burch et al. lune 5,1934

